Crunch time for Cougars in Dudley Eve
Devonshire Cougars face a do-or-die Dudley Eve Group A match against Dandy Town at Goose Gosling Field tonight, knowing that defeat would knock them out of the competition.Having gone down to a surprise 4-3 loss to St George’s in their opening fixture last week, the Big Cats need a win to put themselves in with a real shout of advancing to the next stage, with Town and the East Enders set to clash next week in the final match of the group.The equation is simple; win and go level with St George’s on points and leave Town having to win on the final day, or grab a point and hope that Colts can beat Hornets to get them through.With so many variables, Cougars skipper Chris Caisey jr is looking for the simplest solution, win and move on.“As you can see it’s a must-win situation in order to advance to the next round of the Dudley Eve, so we will be taking this game seriously even though our main goal for the season is the league,” said Caisey.“Cougars will be looking for any bit of silverware we can possibly get, so this match is important to us right now.“We have a good bit of talent in the camp and I would be a liar if I was to say we’re not looking to try take every cup that comes our way.”Their Dudley Eve loss last week was quickly put behind them as they focused their energy on the ultimate prize of the Digicel Premier Division, beating PHC at home on Friday night courtesy of a Jesse Seymour brace to take them momentarily to the top of the table.Town didn’t have a good start to their league title defence, losing their opening fixture on the road to Southampton Rangers, a result that wasn’t expected by many.They will also look to kick start their Dudley Eve campaign and move on from that defeat, with Damon Ming adamant that the loss is already behind the club.“We aren’t worried about the opening game loss, we are taking it one game at a time and need to get a result in order to get back on track,” said Ming. “The good thing is that we don’t have to wait long in getting back on the field and we have a chance of getting back to winning ways.”In Group B, Somerset Trojans will look to book their place in the semi-finals when they take on North Village in the tonight’s first game.The West Enders are coming off two successive wins, a 4-1 win over PHC in their opening Dudley Eve fixture and a 2-0 opening day victory on the road over Robin Hood Saturday night and will hope to compound their opponents’ misery when they take to the field.Village are a shadow of their former selves, having lost the two matches they have played thus far, shipping in seven goals in those games. And they’ll be aiming to put together a string of results, starting tonight.Kick-off for the opening match is set for 7pm while the second of the double header will begin at 9pm.
